Our Bible comes to us rather neatly packaged. Books of
a kind are clustered together, so that we can find the major prophets all
in one place. We can find the minor prophets all gathered together. We can
find the gospels side by side.

But this apparent neat pattern of organization can hide
some things. For example, your Bible has the books of twelve minor
prophets all gathered together, from Hosea to Malachi. But the book of
Amos is number three in that group.

Yet, scholars are almost unanimous in agreeing that
this book is the earliest of the prophet books. And it is also considered
the Old Testament’s classic statement concerning social justice.

My favorite verse identifying that concern is the
twenty-fourth verse of the fifth chapter: “...let justice roll down like
waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”

But this morning I would turn your attention to the
seventh chapter. In it we find Amos experiencing three visions and the
implications of those visions.

We read, at the opening:

“This is what the Lord God showed me: he was forming
locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter
growth after the king’s mowings).”

The latter growth would probably have been the crops
sown in the spring, such as vegetables.

“When they had finished eating the grass of the land
I said, “O Lord God, forgive, I beg you! How can Jacob stand? He is so
small!”

Now, a couple of things need to be explained here. Amos
is not referring to a person when he speaks of Jacob. He is speaking of
the entire nation of Israel. And the smallness of Jacob is not the stature
of a person, but the size and strength of a nation.

Amos is assuming that this locust plague is God’s
judgment for the sins of Israel. And he takes it upon himself to intercede
for them, asking God to forgive them. But notice that he is not appealing
to repentance on the part of the people.

And God changed God’s mind. But this isn’t the
first time this has happened. In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, when
Abraham learns of God’s plans to destroy Sodom, he talks him into saving
the city if he can find fifty righteous persons in it. And then, he
proceeds to talk him down to ten. Will he not destroy the city if he can
find even ten righteous persons? And God agrees.

But in the case of Amos, maybe that single statement,
“He is so small,” does carry weight with God. After all, God was
concerned for the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt.

Amos continues:

“This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord God
was calling for a shower of fire, and it devoured the great deep and was
eating up the land.”

It might almost be considered a supernatural
phenomenon. The “great deep” would be the oceans. And this is
apparently a fire that is all-consuming. We might place it in the same
category as the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, when “the Lord
rained...sulfur and fire from...out of heaven.”

This is a divine fire, of which Amos spoke often in the
first two chapters. He passes along the word of the Lord: “I will send a
fire on the house of Hazael.... I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza....
I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre....

“I will send a fire on Teman.... I will kindle a fire
against the wall of Rabah.... and I will send a fire on Moab.”

“Then Amos said, “O Lord God, cease, I beg you! How
can Jacob stand? He is so small.”

In the first vision, Amos asked God to forgive Israel,
and God relented. But in this case, Amos is just asking God to stop what
God is doing. Yet, the only argument, the only defense, he can offer for
Israel is “He is so small.”

Now this should raise some interesting issues for us.
Has Amos provided a good reason for God to stop? He hasn’t even asked
for Israel’s forgiveness!

But like I said, this raises some interesting issues
for us. Which comes first: repentance or forgiveness? Are we forgiven
because we repent? Or do we repent because we are forgiven? Do we make the
first move, or does God?

Recall the words of the liturgy of holy communion which
we observe each month: “Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we
were yet sinners; that proves God’s love toward us. In the name of Jesus
Christ, you are forgiven!”

Amos continues by telling us of a third vision:

“This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing
beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.”

A plumb line is a line, or a cord, that has at one end
a weight, a plumb bob, and is used to determine vertical alignment, just
as a level is used to determine horizontal alignment.

But a strange thing happened between the original
manuscripts and the contemporary translations. Contemporary scholars are
almost certain that the original word in the original manuscripts does not
mean “plumb line.”

Instead, it means “tin.” “Plumb line” was a
guess made by translators in the middle ages, and we’ve held on to it.
Anyway, let’s stick with it and get back to Amos.

“And the Lord said to Amos, “Amos, what do you see?”
And Amos said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “See, I am
setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again
pass them by.”

When God says, “I will never again pass them by,”
we need to be careful how we read that. God is NOT saying that God will
never again “ignore” or “overlook” his people.

Indeed, it might be accurate to interpret God as
saying, “I will never again let them off the hook.” He did so twice in
the two previous visions of Amos.

But God is not capricious. God’s judgments are not
random. And this is why I like the image of the plumb line, even if some
scholars want to be rid of it. When I hear God saying, “I am setting a
plumb line in the midst of my people Israel,” I hear him saying that
there are standards by which he governs and judges his people.

They are unwavering, righteous standards; and in the
future he will not forget them just because Amos pleads, regarding Israel,
“He is so small!”

And God passes along a warning to Amos:

“the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and
sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the
house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

“Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King
Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very
center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.”

Tattle-tale. Isn’t it amazing that a priest should
get bent out of shape over someone’s religious experience? Well, maybe
not. Folks who represent establishment positions are always getting bent
about people holding radical views. Which is why Jesus was crucified.

But if Amos is conspiring, with whom or what is Amos
conspiring? with God? And why should the king fear the mere words of Amos?
Amos has no army; he only speaks of his experiences.

Amaziah goes on to say, “For thus Amos has said, “Jereboam
shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.”

But a close comparison of verses nine and eleven would
find that Amaziah is stretching things a bit.

God said that he would rise against the house of
Jereboam with the sword, but Amaziah is telling the king that he,
personally, will die by the sword.

God said that the high places and the
sanctuaries--places of worship--would be made desolate and laid waste; but
Amaziah tells the king that Israel must go into exile.

“And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away
to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never
again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a
temple of the kingdom.”

There are a variety of levels on which we can read
this. One one level, Amaziah is begging Amos to get out of town and leave
him alone and not cause him any trouble. Prophesy anywhere but here.

On another level, this might be perceived as friendly
advice. It might be a good idea if you left town. Because if you stay
here, you might get into trouble.

And on yet another level, Amaziah may be acting as the
official authority in control at Bethel. Authorized by the king to evict
anyone who might be a problem for the community.

But I think Amaziah is genuinely afraid. When he
addresses Amos as “seer,” I think he believes in what Amos has seen.

And when he tells him to flee to the land of Judah, we
are reminded that the united monarchy of Saul and David and Solomon is no
more. The original kingdom is divided with Israel in the north and Judah
in the South.

We might wonder why Amaziah didn’t settle for telling
Amos to just get out of town; but in fact, Bethel was just at the border
of the two kingdoms.

And finally, Amaziah’s motivations become abundantly
clear when he notes that Bethel is the king’s sanctuary, the temple of
the kingdom. Amaziah fears for, and is trying to protect, himself.

“Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor
a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees.”

And Amos seems to be telling Amaziah, hey, I’m
nothing special. I didn’t set out to be a prophet, and I don’t
proclaim myself to be a prophet. This is not something that runs in the
family. (And in those days, children usually took up the livelihoods of
their parents.)

And scholars seem to believe that Amos’s claim of
being a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees is evidence that he was
probably nomadic. He probably moved around a lot.

But he goes on to say, “and the Lord took me from
following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people
Israel.”

And Amos becomes very pointed with Amaziah:

“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say,
“Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of
Isaac.”

“Therefore thus says the Lord: “Your wife shall
become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by
the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall
die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from
its land.”

In the eighth century before Christ the people of
Israel still thought in terms of corporate responsibility: Amaziah’s
whole family would suffer because of his guilt. But it was another sixty
years before the northern kingdom of Israel fell. So, his family may not
have suffered this exact fate, but this is an accurate description of what
did happen to families at that time.

“See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my
people.”

I think that for each of us, there are plumb lines in
our lives. There are straight and narrow courses that we choose to follow
or ignore.

I think the marvel of this Bible story is that we
witness two dimensions of God. On the one hand, God often forgives us when
we aren’t the least bit deserving. But on the other hand, God DOES have
God’s laws and God’s standards: a plumb line in the midst of our
lives.